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March 14th, 2011

Brook Lopez scored 20 points, Deron Williams added 16 and made the clinching 3-pointer, and the Nets extended their longest winning streak in three years to five games with an 88-79 victory Monday night.

Kris Humphries had 16 points and 15 rebounds, following his strong performance against Blake Griffin by turning in one against Kevin Garnett to help the Nets snap a nine-game home losing streak against the Celtics…

Ray Allen scored 19 points and Garnett had 18 for the Celtics, who couldn’t overcome horrible shooting nights from All-Stars Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo and fell back into a tie with Chicago for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

LeBron James finished with 21 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Heat, who have won three straight and moved within two games of Eastern Conference front-runners Boston and Chicago.

Tony Parker scored 18 points and Tim Duncan added 14 for the Spurs, who had won 15 of their last 18 against Miami. Before Monday, San Antonio’s worst loss of the season had been a 96-72 defeat in New Orleans.

Since a 4-4 stretch following their league-record 26-game losing streak, the Cavs have lost four straight by an average of about 16 points. They were barely competitive in the last three.

Coach Byron Scott admits his young team has regressed.

“I think the last two games, yeah, think so,” he said. “We discussed that this morning as coaches. That’s one of the most frustrating things for us is that we’ve regressed instead of progressed — especially when you see progression coming and all of a sudden the last two games you take a couple of steps back.

“That’s very frustrating for me and for all our coaches — and, hopefully, for the players as well. We’ve got to figure out a way to get back to where we’re taking small steps forward instead of taking big steps backward. It just can’t happen.”

This young team has confounded its coaches and fans all season, and Scott admitted almost anything could be behind this latest swoon. With eight players age 24 or younger — four are 22 or younger — the Cavs have a roster full of guys who have never played this many games before. This far out of the playoffs, it’s possible the players are just counting down the 17 games to the end of the season.

Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay underwent a follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) today on his left shoulder, which revealed that while the shoulder is healing from a subluxation, it needs more time to fully recover. There is no timetable for his return.

The 6-8, 240-pound forward has missed the last 10 games after suffering the injury on Feb. 15 vs. Philadelphia.

The Portland Trail Blazers have signed center Chris Johnson of the NBA Development League’s Dakota Wizards for the remainder of the season, it was announced today by General Manager Rich Cho.

Johnson, 25, previously signed a 10-day contract with the Trail Blazers on Jan. 22 and appeared in two games, Feb. 1 vs. San Antonio and Feb. 2 at Denver, totaling four points and four rebounds in 16 minutes.

In his first NBA season, Johnson (6-11, 249) also appeared in four games for Boston from Feb. 24-March 4, where he totaled six points, five rebounds and three blocked shots in 32 minutes.

The 15th call-up of the 2010-11 NBA D-League season, Johnson has played in 35 games (34 starts) this season for Dakota, averaging 16.2 points (51.7% FG), 9.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2.77 blocked shots in 31.8 minutes.

The LSU product was named to the 2011 NBA Development League All-Star Game and tallied 10 points (5-9 FG), two rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 20 minutes of action.

Kevin Love’s remarkable streak of consecutive double-doubles came to an end with a thud, and no one was happier about it than the Minnesota star himself.

Slowed by a thigh injury and worn out from all the attention he’s been receiving lately, Love sounded relieved and eager to move on now that it’s over.

“Now I can start focusing on playing my game,” said Love after being held to six points and 12 rebounds in the Timberwolves’ 100-77 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. “I thought I was doing it for myself but a lot of it was for the fans and everybody watching. I feel a big weight off my shoulders.”

It’s the first time since Nov. 19 that Love has failed to register a double-double. His 53-game streak was a franchise record and the longest in the NBA since Elvin Hayes did it in 55 consecutive games in 1973-74.

Love’s streak has been the only thing keeping the Timberwolves (17-51) in the headlines these days. Not anymore.